i see. i have never used a monomachine, maybe i should.

thank you for the complimentary

@oliver : So you don't have a elektron monomachine
For me the sound made by a monomachine or nanoloop 2.x are related, not too close, but it could sound similar. And the sequencer of both nanoloop and the monomachine are similar too.
it's a nice complimentary

pardon?

@pselodux : totaly agree with you.
I have the same feeling on my  monomachine and nanoloop 2.7 track
Oliver may have a monomachine or Elektron use nanoloop

a good point.. chip gear usually tends to hold its value or go up

Oliver laying down the law!

You guys are all awesome! Thanks a million for the varied feedback, it's all been really helpful and enlightening. I ended up preordering a 2.7 cart and putting the demo on a flash to get acclimated before it gets here. I guess I figure that even if I end up not liking it in the long term, the residual value seems to stay high on these things. I'm so used to lsdj at this point. I'm excited for something new, but fear the frustration of a learning curve. Though it's not like the music I'm currently making is particularly good anyhow.

Interesting. I feel this way about nanoloop 2; with it I've managed to make stuff that sounds like it was made on high-end digital synths. My nanoloop tracks sit nicely in a playlist with my monomachine tracks—in fact, the few times I've synced the two, it's been difficult to tell which machine is which.

I released an album online and on CD back in 2014 that I produced entirely with Nanoloop on iOS, and can definitely share an opinion. The iOS version, including how you use all the functionality of the step sequencer is really different. I used it to make a more electro type album rather than a chiptune album. If making a more proper chiptune sound is your goal you're probably not exactly going to get from this what you would on the Gameboy cartridge version. I actually can't stand the Gameboy version compared to LSDJ as far as that goes, but the ease of control you get on the iOS Nanoloop is pretty awesome, and the real kicker is that you can import libraries of samples with relative ease. Furthermore, Nanoloop on iOS will let you tweak and alter those samples in lots of ways including pitch bending them on the fly.

So, my music kind of sucks I guess but the project I did was a bass CD (if you ever were familiar with the Bass Mekanik era where chest rattling car audio was a thing.) Just check it out:
http://bitpusher2600.net/g33k.html
The entire thing was produced purely in Nanoloop. You get simulate a chipish sound alongside more common electronic instrumentation (such as my tune Bassik Protocol) or pitch bend a couple samples and tweak timing (such as my tune Moonlit Bass which gives a small spectrum of piano notes.)

So there's that. Long story short; Nanoloop on iOS is fantastic and worth way more than its cost (in my opinion) for making all sorts of different styles of electronic music once you learn the many ins and outs of the software and realize just how much you can really do (the learning curve of getting the most out of it isn't what I'd call small.) If however you're wanting to make straight Gameboy music, this works practically nothing like the Gameboy relase whatsoever. Yeah there's a grid of squares that represents a step sequencer, but how the two work and getting around the software, nothing alike.

I found the iOS version way easier to use than the Game Boy version, but I have no real idea why.

I'd say no.
A touchscreen just can't provide a similar experience. Allthough you literally touch things on iPhone, pushing Game Boy buttons is so much more immersive.

Sequencer step control is one-dimensional on iOS, with continuous fading, while it's two-dimensional with discrete steps on Game Boy. The latter is more comfortable, it provides the feeling of "grip" that is typical for nanoloop and can't be ported to iOS.

And "step pause", a very useful feature introduced in 1.7 / 2.7 is currently missing on iOS.

Ah I get what your saying . Yeah now I agree that there are no instruments in nl 2 . No saveable patches . Just copy / paste lol

[Am speaking off 1.x game boy version]

Well, no you can't use samples. But What I mean is that in the iOS version, each channel has  its own instrument settings that don't change. You can just plonk down notes and get the same sound over and over. LSDJ had the idea of instruments at its core, as well. In the game boy version nanoloop, you create kick drums by fiddling with the pitch settings in the pulse channel's sequencer. It's just a different way of working.

Yeah no nanoloop 1 bashing in any threads allowed ! Nl 1.3 will destroy your will to live an honest life .

nothing bad about using 1.1 or 1.2 really, just one fewer channel and some things work differently than newer 1.x versions.... dealing with their batteries was a pain in the ass though